-LRB- EW.com -RRB- -- `` New Year 's Eve , '' a schlock ensemble love-o-rama timed for the season of easy good feeling , is a movie I often found myself laughing at in ridicule , and one that also gave me a lump in the throat .

So I guess you could say I had a good time . The movie , like last year 's `` Valentine 's Day , '' was written by Katherine Fugate and directed by Garry Marshall , and I can just imagine Marshall showing up on the set to basically shout seven words : '' Action ! '' '' All right , everybody , overact ! '' '' Okay , cut ! ''

If you had to pick the cheesiest subplot , your head might explode .

Is it Jon Bon Jovi as a rock star trying to win back the fiancÃ © e he dumped -- a superchef played by Katherine Heigl , who looks as if she can barely slice a pineapple ?

Is it Ashton Kutcher as a smirk-aleck stuck on a grimy elevator with an agonizingly sincere backup singer -LRB- Lea Michele -RRB- ?

Is it Hilary Swank as a Times Square exec who saves the dropping New Year 's Eve ball from mechanical failure ? -LRB- She calls ... Kominsky ! A repairman with funny Russian accent ! -RRB-

Or is it Robert De Niro as a dying man with a bucket-list wish so wispy that the entire anecdote seems designed to let De Niro shoot his scenes in less than an hour ?

`` New Year 's Eve '' is dunderheaded kitsch , but it 's the kind of marzipan movie that can sweetly soak up a holiday evening .

EW.com rating : B -

See the full article at EW.com .

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The movie , like last year 's `` Valentine 's Day , '' was written by Katherine Fugate

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I often found myself laughing at in ridicule , and one that also gave me a lump in the throat

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It 's the kind of marzipan movie that can sweetly soak up a holiday evening